McDonald's franchise cost 2026
From the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document of McDonald's USA, LLC, registered in Wisconsin (filing 640986, effective 4/15/2026). Every number links to the page it was read from.
| Total initial investment | $1,472,000 to $2,807,000 | p.24 |
| Initial franchise fee | $45,000 | p.17 |
| Royalty | 5% or 4% of Gross Sales, depending on the circumstances | p.18 |
| Advertising fund | Not less than 4% of Gross Sales | p.18 |
| Item 19 financial performance | average annual sales volume: $4,088,000 | p.42 |
| Units, end of 2025 | 13,706 | p.45 |
Units by year (Item 20, Table 1)
| Type | Year | Start | End | Net change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| franchised | 2023 | 12,764 | 12,772 | 8 | p.45 |
| company owned | 2023 | 691 | 685 | -6 | p.45 |
| total | 2023 | 13,455 | 13,457 | 2 | p.45 |
| franchised | 2024 | 12,772 | 12,887 | 115 | p.45 |
| company owned | 2024 | 685 | 672 | -13 | p.45 |
| total | 2024 | 13,457 | 13,559 | 102 | p.45 |
| franchised | 2025 | 12,887 | 13,062 | 175 | p.45 |
| company owned | 2025 | 672 | 644 | -28 | p.45 |
| total | 2025 | 13,559 | 13,706 | 147 | p.45 |
Estimated initial investment (Item 7)
| Expenditure | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee | $45,000 | $45,000 | p.24 |
| Signs, Seating, Equipment, and Decor | $1,100,000 | $1,850,000 | p.24 |
| Opening Inventory | $20,000 | $39,000 | p.24 |
| Miscellaneous Opening Expenses | $55,000 | $68,000 | p.24 |
| Additional Funds – 3 Months | $250,000 | $452,000 | p.24 |
| Total | $1,472,000 | $2,807,000 | p.24 |
Item 19: what the filing says about revenue
McDonald's reports average annual sales volume of $4,088,000 across 12702 outlets for during 2025.p.42
Scorecard
Rank among the brands on this site that report the figure, on each list's own direction. No blended grade. How the lists work.
| Cost to open | $1,472,000 | rank 7 of 10 |
| Royalty plus ad fund | 9.0% | rank 5 of 10 |
| Three-year unit growth | 1.9% | rank 8 of 12 |
| Closure rate | held | held |
| Discloses unit revenue | yes | |
| Litigation disclosed | held | held |
Litigation (Item 3)
Item 3 has not been read for this filing yet, or the two readers disagreed and it is held for review.
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Provenance
Source: Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions franchise filing 640986, effective 4/15/2026, expires 4/15/2027. Extracted 2026-09-03 by two independent passes; only figures both passes agreed on and that appear verbatim on the cited page are shown. 8 field(s) held back as unresolved. Arithmetic checks flagged: item7: high lines sum to 2454000, total says 2807000. How this works.